Coast Guard rape in 2009

There are two things that I want to point out. First is that no matter what, no matter how much evidence that you have you are going to be viewed as a liar. The second fact is that women, especially women in the Coast Guard will do whatever they can to kick a fellow woman who is already down. Women has been the most viscous including holding me down and literally kicking me. This is my story.

I was 18 years old when I reported a rape to the Chief. It was September 2009 when a shipmate entered my room at night and raped me. I told the Executive Officer who was a Chief what happened and he said that he’ll speak to the alleged rapist. That was it. I asked for an update and it was always “we are investigating” but they never followed up. They switched our duty sessions and I only saw the rapist on my off going duty days. He always gave me a smirk cause he knew what he was getting away with.

The rape made the rounds at the station and I was viewed as having cried rape. The women at the station took it upon themselves to decide that my allegations was false. It did not help that the according to the Chief it was not serious enough to bring in CGI for a formal investigation. They wrote up statements on the side of the rapist on how much of a role model that he was to them. How they can not imagine him doing what I was alleging. One day they cornered me into a wall and took turns punching me and kicking me calling me crazy for having cried rape.

I was not aware that for the next 8 months the Chief was putting together a packet of documents showing why he felt that I was not fit to be in the Coast Guard. In this packet which I was able to receive through a request for my service records he said that I am crazy. I am a compulsive liar. That I do not know my role as a non-rate. That I give people “crazy looks” and that I am “legally insane”. Legally insane? Great job of a diagnoses. Do they teach you psychological diagnoses at Boatswain mate A-school? I thought not. One day out of the blue I was called into Chief’s office and told of my separation from service. I was to sign my DD-214 right then and there. What was most troublesome was the fabricated rebuttal statement on a medical board review that I was never informed about. In this statement somebody pretending to be me confessed about lying about the rape.

I was separated for reasons of personality disorder.

I am still be harassed by the women that I was stationed with. I had to delete my facebook account. They also tracked down my husband and started to harass him. I am in weekly therapy at the VA for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and attend two support groups. I am rated at 100%IU for reasons of Military Sexual Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder meaning that I can not work. I get nightmares of being back at the station each night.

The Congress tried to investigate my case but the Coast Guard came back and said that there were no record of me even being rape. The only rape mentioned that they could find was me “confessing” to lying about being raped. The Coast Guard continued to say that they take rape very seriously and that they always do what they feel is best for the survivor.